Fifth-grade model train enthusiasts to play hosts on home tour

Rebecca Emanuele | for the Tribune Review - Twins Christopher (left) and Matthew Cox, of Latrobe, 11, show one of two train layouts they built with assistance from their father, Mark Cox, at their home on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in preparation for the Ligonier Valley Road Association home tour on April 27.

Rebecca Emanuele | for the Tribune Review - Twins Christopher and Matthew Cox, 11, of Latrobe, show one of two train layouts they built with assistance from their father, Mark Cox, at their home on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in preparation for the Ligonier Valley Road Association tour on April 27.

Rebecca Emanuele | for the Tribune Review - (from left) Ten-year old twins, Christopher and Matthew Cox, of Latrobe, are proud to show one of two train layouts they built with assistance from dad, Mark Cox, at their residence on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in preparation for the upcoming Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association home tour in April.

Rebecca Emanuele | for the Tribune Review - Christopher Cox, 11, adjusts one of the train layouts he created with his twin brother, Matthew, with assistance from their father, Mark Cox, at their Latrobe home on March 16, 2013, in preparation for the Ligonier Valley Rail Road home tour on April 27.

Rebecca Emanuele | for the Tribune Review - Matthew Cox, 11, of Latrobe, shows details on one of two displays he and his twin brother, Christopher, created with assistance from their father, Mark Cox, at their home on Saturday, March 16, 2013.

If you go

The Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association's fifth annual Model Railroad Home Tour will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 27.

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $15 for adults and $5 for those younger than 16 by sending a check payable to LVRRA, P.O. Box 21, Ligonier, Pa., 15658. Purchase deadline is April 20. Only 300 tickets will be sold. Checks should include phone number and email address.

One display includes a school, church, café, bank, motel and swimming pool, coal mines, mountains and a working magnetic crane.

One building reads “Anita's Restaurant & Eatery,” a tribute to their mother, Anita.

“Most of the buildings, we will put lights in if they are not in already, to light it up and make it look pretty,” Christopher said.

The hobby is not inexpensive, Mark Cox said, but trains can be purchased used or through trades.

“You can start out with small trains and have a nice little display,” he said.

Their second layout includes a Coors Light train, which can emit “fog” to depict refrigeration.

It has a Steelers trolley, a Polar Express train and a copy of a No. 1152 Doodlebug, a Ligonier Valley streetcar.

The family sometimes visits train displays while on vacation, Anita Cox said.

“Anywhere we are, we brake for trains,” she said.

Lanny Dixon of Vintondale spent 20 years building his basement train display, which he describes as a throwback to “a happier time.”

The three-rail O-gauge layout is “99 percent done,” said Dixon, 71. “But I plan to expand. I may start all over again.”

A member of the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum, Dixon said his love of trains was sparked with a Christmas gift from his parents when he was 4.

“It was right after World War II. I added on what they gave me each year for Christmas. Trains used to be toys. Now they are scale models of real trains,” he said.

The art of his layouts imitates life.

“It's modeled on something you would see on the street back in 1946, for example,” Dixon said. “It pretty much models Western Pennsylvania at that time — industrial cities, mountains and cliffs.”

There are freight trains and passenger trains, steel mills, and specific touches from any mid-1900s Main Street — signs reading “Uncle Sam Wants You,” an ice cream truck, a street car, a bank, a hobo camp, a movie theater with lights racing around the marquee.

The layout mimics the look of cities such as Johnstown, Greensburg or Pittsburgh in the 1940s or 1950s, he said.

“It is what you might see on city streets downtown during the ‘pre-mall' era,” Dixon said.

Mary Pickels is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-836-5401 or mpickels@tribweb.com.

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